Mindfulness is Not the Way

Liangkai's famous painting of the Sixth Patriarch Hui-Nengcaught in a mindless, fierce, crazed state of nondual awareness,dancing with joy while ripping up sutra scrolls.

Q: Roshi, I've heard you more than once shock people by saying, "Mindfulness is not the Way." You've also said, "Mindfulness is horseshit!" What do you mean by this?

A: All the great Masters agree on at least this one point: Mindlessness, not Mindfulness, is the Way.

Why? Because "Mindfulness" is always guided by particular concepts & never transcends those concepts.

You decide that you want to be a certain type of calm or lucid person, maybe a "holy" or a "good" person according to whatever bizarre Dalai Lama-esque ideal you've fixated upon, & so you try to force yourself into that mould by paying razor sharp attention to everything you do, whether it's eating an orange or driving down Hollywood Boulevard.

But by that very effort to coerce yourself into a new & improved state of consciousness, you divide yourself into two. You put a head on top of your head, a mouth over your mouth. Believe me, you're going to fail at this impossible task anyway & then you'll just feel bitter about those who lied to you.

"Mindfulness" is actually a very serious & tiresome perversion of the Great Way, which can be realized only by throwing out all thinking all at once -- exactly as you'd throw out a bucket of dirty dishwater.Note: It is true that mindfulness, if done with the right resolve & intensity, can sometimes trigger mindlessness. This article merely objects to mindfulness taken as an end in itself.

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This is a little book of concise instructions for entering the non-dual state and experiencing the miraculous nature of life. It is a complete system for realizing the goal of Zen, for "entering the Gateless Gate." You can throw away all your other books on Enlightenment. Either this one works, or nothing will. “Put strength into it; abandon conceit.’ Just practice truly, with energy and resolve.

"At the Gateless Barrier"

At the Gateless Barrier, I play the old tunes on my bamboo flute./It's cold at night and everybody weeps to hear the ancient songs./Yet Zen is without sentiment.

I write. I do Zen. I play the bamboo flute.

"Great Nature, Great Manifestation, Great Realization." What does this mean? Every aspect of this life, which is Zen Enlightenment itself, is "great." Whether wonderful or terrifying or both it always "is" in a way that cannot be explained. Just try to explain it. Can you, or can't you?

It's just like when Master Ko Bong shouted "That's it! Ha, ha, ha, ha!" and broke his fan. Do you get it, or not? If you can tell me what you get, I'll bow to you. If you can't, I'll call you my Master. Either way, you win.

For more notes, poems and aphorisms: go here.See also 老虎: Lao Hu. Contact me at jyakunen(at)gmail.com.

SHIBUMI TEA ROOM

I've begun building a small tea room in the old style. Here, I plan to conduct the simplest and most ancient form of the Zen tea ceremony.

"Cool in summer, warm in winter; flowers from the field; prepare for rain; enjoy a sip of tea together."

This will be good place to sit and drink tea and listen to rain clattering on the roof. "After all there is no difficulty in tea, only enjoyment." (Kaji Aso)

Talk to the Moktak

There is nothing in the world bigger than the tip of an autumn hair, and Mount T'ai is little. No one has lived longer than a dead child, and P'eng-tsu died young. Heaven and earth were born at the same time I was, and the ten thousand things are one with me.-Master Chuang-Tzu